In March 2019, the Human Rights Commission defended the Saudi authorities’ refusal to allow an international investigation into the 2 October 2018 assassination of Jamal Khashogg.

Still, the article boosts that Human Rights Commission President Awwad Al-Awwad will inaugurate on Sunday an initiative to use the national database in order to track the implementation of the recommendations of the international mechanisms with regard to human rights abd thus will become the first Arab country to implement this initiative.

The ceremony will be held at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Riyadh. The initiative comes within the framework of a memorandum of technical cooperation signed between the Kingdom, represented by HRC, and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). Under the deal, HRC works to enhance national capacities in the fields of human rights within the Kingdom and outside, through the preparation, development and implementation of specialized training programs, including the mechanisms of the United Nations and the work of the competent international organizations.

Meanwhile, Al-Awwad made on Thursday an inspection tour of the General Intelligence Prison in Al-Hair, near Riyadh, and was reassured of the services being offered to the inmates. He also reviewed the prison’s compliance of the human rights criteria in line with the local and international conventions and regulations. Al-Awwad toured various facilities of the prison, including governmental and non-governmental offices that monitor the conditions of the inmates as well as the family facility where inmates meet their relatives, and the prison hospital.

On 4 April 2019, the head of the Greek National Commission for Human Rights (GNCHR), Giorgos Stavropoulos, resigned, accusing the (Syriza) government of attempting to alter the balance in the composition of the independent body’s committee. In his resignation, Stavropoulos criticized the government’s decision to add five members from the LGBTQI community and two more members from the Roma community to the body’s plenary, saying the decision violates “any principle of equality” in relation to the other members of the GNCHR who only have one vote in the committee. Stavropoulos said the body has already made “a decisive contribution” in highlighting the problems of the Roma and LGBTQI community.

“However, their excessively favorable treatment at the expense of all other defenders of human rights insults the latter, but also undermines the authority of the Commission itself, uncritically altering its composition and affecting its independence,” he added. GNCHR is an advisory body to the Greek State on matters pertaining to human rights protection.

Dunja Mijatović, the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, published on 18 December a piece stressing the importance of the so-called “Paris Principles” for having strong National Human Rights Institutions. Worth reading in toto:

Perhaps a bit of a side-show in the ongoing conflict between Qatar and it Arab neighbors, but interesting to note that the International Accreditation Committee of the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions has rejected the complaint submitted by the ‘siege countries’ against the National Human Rights Committee (NHRC). The International Accreditation Committee has underlined that, since the beginning of the Gulf crisis, the National Human Rights Committee (NHRC) had played its part in the protection and promotion of human rights in accordance with the Paris Principles that govern the work of national human rights institutions. [the countries had filed a joint complaint on 7 August 2017 against the National Human Rights Committee at the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights as the secretariat of the International Accreditation Committee, and also as a permanent observer to the Accreditation Committee of the Alliance. In their complaint to the Accreditation Committee, the siege countries requested that appropriate action be taken to freeze the membership of the National Human Rights Committee (NHRC) in the list of national human rights institutions, and called for a reclassification of the Committee’s A rank and downgrade and review of all activities of the NHRC before and during the crisis to consider it conformity with its mandate in accordance with the Paris Principles.]

In a press statement, the Chairman of the Qatari National Human Rights Committee (NHRC) Dr. Ali bin Smaikh Al Marri said this decision is a remedy for the human rights victims of the siege and support for their cause, and a victory not only for the NHRC but also for all national human rights institutions and human rights defenders in the world, as well as a testimony of pride for the NHRC , and an affirmation of its independence and the credibility of its work. ….Dr Al Marri also called on civil society organizations in the siege countries to cooperate with the National Human Rights Committee (NHRC) in addressing the violations and the disastrous humanitarian situation facing the citizens of the Gulf Cooperation Council countries (GCC) as a result of the siege, especially on mixed families, affected students, owners and investors, as well as the neutralization of human rights of any political differences. Dr Al Marri stressed that the NHRC is continuing its work against the violations resulting from the siege and will intensify its efforts at regional and international forums to redress the victims within the framework of its jurisdiction and in accordance with the Paris Principles.

The Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) in Bangladesh, a member of the Law Commission, and several rights activists and academics said on Saturday 28 september that the state should not treat human rights defenders as its enemy. They also expressed concern over the use of several laws against human rights defenders Read the rest of this entry »